Belt retractors serve to provide a vehicle occupant with safety belt webbing. Normally, the belt webbing can be withdrawn from the belt reel against the resistance of a spring element. In the blocked condition, belt webbing cannot be withdrawn.
Disposed on such a belt retractor, as it is known for instance from German Utility Model 201 09 534, is at least one locking pawl which can be brought in engagement with locking teeth at a frame of the belt retractor, in order to non-rotatably block a belt reel. A mechanism for blocking the belt retractor allows to block the belt reel depending on the forces acting on the belt webbing or the acceleration forces acting on the vehicle. In both cases, the locking pawl is swiveled such that it engages in the locking teeth at the frame of the belt retractor. In the case of the belt-webbing-sensitive activation of the blocking mechanism, a coupling disc constituting an inertia disc, which is disposed at the belt reel so as to be rotatable relative to the same, lags behind the rotation of the belt reel due to its mass inertia. At the coupling disc, an actuating element is disposed, which effects a swivel movement of the locking pawl which thus engages in the locking teeth. The operation of such mechanism for blocking a belt retractor of a safety belt is described in detail in the above-mentioned Utility Model and will therefore not be represented in greater detail.
Although such locking pawls for belt retractors generally perform their function very well, it is desired to improve the same even more, in order to for instance reduce the production of noise or decrease the weight of the locking pawl.